A humanoid figure within a thick fog and excessively dank marsh could be seen facing off against a non-humanoid creature. From what you could discern from the fog was that this humanoid figure wields a peculiar sword held in their right arm. They're a swordsman.

Facing this swordsman was a creature that seems to possess four, attenuated, long, limbs making it stand taller than its prey.

Due to the creature's erratic, beast-like movements, the swordsman could barely devise a solid strategy facing it. The best this swordsman could do facing such a creature was reactively fight for every next move that this creature would do.

Suddenly—

The beast charged forward. In those micro-movements on how the swordsman saw this beast react, it had moved back its right limb. With a creature adapting such primitive movements, inductive reasoning tells the swordsman that it would strike with its right claw.

And so, as the beast retracted their hind limb, the swordsman raised their weapon at an angle adjacent to the creature's right side where it thought it would strike.

A loud crash resounded on the swordsman's weapon, and along with that, the fog partially got swept away due to the shockwave, revealing the weapon they wielded. It was a Kampilan, a single-edged, long sword possessing a broad but uneven split-tip, thinning down to its base, a thick cross guard; and a hilt shaped in the head of an open-mouthed Naga—a mythical dragon.

As the fog dispersed, this also revealed the humanoid figure within the fog moments ago. They wore a darkened close helmet, with a pair of broad, short, darkened steel antennas above its visor, part of the helmet; They are cloaked from their helmet's comb, down to their ankles by an earthen-green, tattered, caped cowl with its loose hood attached on its antennas, and darkened, steel plate armor with its gauntlets, poleyns, couter, and sabatons designed with sharp margins. It was customized to its wearers' preferences which indicates that their armor's made solely for the sake of combat.

With the dispersion of the fog, also revealed the creature the swordsman was fighting. Two of its frontal limbs from its radius—down, form a pair of single, sharp claws, which can stretch out and also act as its flippers if it submerges in the mushy lake of the marsh to help it swim across; hind limbs shaped that of a dog's with large, webbed feet in which it can either stand as a bipedal or quadrupedal being to effectively traverse the marshlands... a small, oval-shaped torso, and a head of a frilled shark with spiky shaped frills on its neck that expands to intimidate its enemy.

The beast's attack successfully connected as the swordsman intended. They felt the weight of the strike slightly bend their wrist, the iron vibrate, ringing their fingers, and their feet sink, down the brittle ground.

Upon successfully blocking the creature's claw, the swordsman immediately shifted their bladed weapon and swiftly slid it away from the creature's right claw. They explosively stepped forward. Upon doing so, they swung their sword upwards with both hands gripping it, aiming at the creature's torso. At the same time, the beast tried to strike once again with its bladed left limb. The swordsman, upon seeing this, persists in doing their current action.

And then—

An immediate sound of iron and tearing flesh was heard and blood sprayed upon the swordsman's dark helmet.

A limb flew off distances away from the two figures, as the swordsman felt a confusing but familiar sensation.

On the ground, fell the swordsman's right arm twitching from instantaneous rigidity, with the sword it once held, plunged into the mush ground helplessly, like any piece of feeble, ordinary, unshaped iron before reforged by man.

Upon realizing this, the swordsman reflexively raised their left arm to guard their face quickly. As they did, the creature rammed the blunt side of its claw at the swordsman, aiming at their head. Instead of any serious damage, it grazed a part of their arm and torso, knocking them down to the wet ground echoing a violent wallop.

The swordsman, supported by their remaining arm, managed to clumsily recover and lie on their backside facing up at the beast. And without delay, the creature ran towards the injured swordsman.

As it caught up, it slammed its right claw down at its prey. Within those rapid moments, the swordsman rolled away from the attack. The creature followed up with a piercing attack aimed at the swordsman's chest with its left claw but failed to do so as they missed by a hair. The creature shrieked, thrilled by its game.

The moment of the shriek cued a window of opportunity for the swordsman. They began to stand supported by their remaining arm, focused intently on the object they were pursuing... The sword knocked away from their grasp—a few meters within reach.

The swordsman quickly stood up. But they slipped due to the damp ground of the marsh, landing on their remaining arm and a knee. They began to crawl as the creature's unintelligible laments began to sound louder, and its webbed feet come faster. It's getting closer—this swordsman realized. But there's no time to look back, nor much time to plan.

With two knees and one arm, they crawled forcefully with all their might for their sword within those strict moments.

When finally—

The swordsman got a hold of the grip—

The creature pounced claws first—

The swordsman twisted their body and then—

—the sound of cutting flesh. Its cut went deep, and it drew blood...

The sword passed through from meat to bone. The creature's left claw was severed at its upper limb, the humerus—the only vulnerable spot on its bladed limbs, as its otherworldly blood spilled. Some of it splashed on the one-armed swordsman.

The swordsman twisted their body to their right side, avoiding the thin, single-bladed claws of the beast. A fate in which they believed, have cheated Death. Lady Luck must have answered their prayers.

It wasn't time to relax yet.

The creature fell headfirst after losing its balance from pouncing at its game. It shrieked a cry of unexpectedness. As it fell, the swordsman—looking at the beast whilst lying on its back, turned their blade upside down, and stabbed the creature in the head. The creature died silently at that instant without a final cry for life.

The swordsman let go of their sword and dropped their whole body backward on the marsh's damp ground.

The swordsman let out a breath exclaiming their relief.

The swordsman looked up at the upper left corner of their HUD or, Heads up Display which detailed their status. They looked at their HP or, Health Points which was the amount of damage they can take before their avatar dies.

The HUD was also meant to display status effects to know whether their avatar has any boosted statistics or disabilities in any way, floating texts for any system-related announcements, notifications and confirmations, system settings, and party members. At the moment, a small icon was displayed implying limb damage on their severed right arm.

But mainly, the HUD shows the player's HP throughout their entire gameplay.

Right now, the bar of their HP remains only a chip amount. About 18% of it remains.

Above their HP was their avatar's name, Arakar—also known as Arka Arao.

"I sure messed that one up..." She said. She meant her fatal mistake in the battle that time with the—

"...Nightcullers..." She said.

Can be so tenacious... she thought as she looked at the corpse of the beast called, a Nightculler on the ground next to her.

As Arka or... Arakar in this world rested on the damp ground, her HP starts to regenerate moments later.

She just laid there as the green bar of her HP slowly overtook the red side of the bar, moving towards the right.

25%... 38%... 45%... 58%... as it reached the 65% mark, her brain registered a sensation on her right side. She lifted her severed right arm to look at it and saw it begin the recovery process. Small, gridded shapes, shone with a faint, blue light and started outlining the form of the severed arm her avatar was missing. In a few moments, her arm immediately reconstructed itself starting from the base it was severed in a digitalized form. A soft and immediate hum was heard as the arm briefly went back in its place.

Arka clenched her fist...and felt the grip—the sensation all back in place.

It's back in place... Arka thought, reassuring herself.

Having regained the sense of complete limbs relieved her unease. She stood up from the ground effortlessly this time without any further struggles. Once she did, she withdrew her Kampilan plunged in the Nightculler's head and sheathed it on her waist.

A first person dark fantasy virtual reality game... Arka looked up at the sky as she thought of this. This was what awaited her inside the package that she opened. A virtual reality console for a game called Helsfate. The package that was sent to her had a note attached saying that she was one of the chosen testers for this new game.

Helsfate features limb damage as one of its gameplay mechanics. How this works was that each part of the body has its own Hit Box which are invisible shapes that are present on your avatar that correspond to every individual body part. When the system detects a collision on a body part, it registers it as damage you took. It all depends as well if whatever damage you took carried an additional effect or whatever was present.

Of course, the game was programmed so that only certain conditions are met for damage to happen. Your avatar bumping into other avatars or walls won't register this as damage.

The game also featured its own original style of immersion developed by Lightspire called, Con-Imm or, Concentrated Immersion, where your consciousness and some of your senses were altered to that of the game world while also disabling your motor functions in real life. Therefore, it feels as if you physically are your player's avatar. These senses are limited to your sight and touch which are exactly like that in the game world. The last three senses, smell, hearing, and taste were still present in the real world; with smell and hearing present, both in-game and in real life. Meanwhile, your body's metabolism and other functions still carry on. You could compare it similarly to engaging your body in a lucid, sleep paralysis as you play on the Dive Console.

Also, despite this altered sense of consciousness, as you get hurt in-game, you don't feel pain. As you take damage, get boosted on any statistics, or be inflicted upon any debilitating effect; the system recognizes this and neutralizes this sensation programmed by the developers. One of its only side effects was the brain registering a fuzzy sensation down to your nerves on the specific body part.

Despite the number of hours Arka has played, it was still a lot to get used to.

Arka was worried at first if there would be any long-term side effects with such a strange console... but she feels fine after the many hours of gaming in Helsfate she has had. So she let her worries slide.

Arka took out a carving knife sheathed on her back waist. She went to the creature to carve out whatever it had left.

She hacked away on the skin of the Nightculler corpse. After yanking and cutting off its remaining skin, she sheathed her carving knife, and walked away with the Nightculler hide, grasped in her previously severed hand.

Unhurriedly, she walked and looked keenly in the foggy marsh. Before she can leave the marsh, she had to look for something else. It didn't take long before she found her object of interest.

It was her leather satchel. She left it on the ground of the marsh before she went on her hunt for Nightcullers; a quest given to her.

She picked up her leather satchel. Then, with an easy lift of the bag's flap, she threw in the Nightculler hide she carved out.

Obtained Nightculler hide x1—a system message briefly appeared on her Heads up Display.

The inventory system for Helsfate Online revolves around bags with real carrying capacity and weight management. Carrying one hinders movement, as the player also feels the weight of their bag burden them. It's up to the player whether they would drop or carry with them their bags before a battle.

Next, she took out a rolled parchment in her inventory while slinging the leather satchel over her shoulder. Unrolling it was revealed to be a map. Once she pinpointed her location and direction, she slipped the map back into her leather satchel.

"I guess it’s time to get out of this shithole." She said.

Arka began heading westward.

The Grand Kingdom of Fellmoria was a country that exercises its nation in a Meritocratic form of government, where only the strongest, the wisest, or the ones who have demonstrated great talent can be put into positions of power and leadership. It perpetually held this idea of excellence throughout its history until its rulers found a city sharing the same name as the country itself that symbolizes the peak of power and excellence.

The Grand City of Fellmoria—great castle walls consisting of various archery, cannoning and watchtower stations with other exceptional defenses hidden within; surround the great city ready for its protection. Outside the city walls are wide, lush, rich fields and vegetation occupied by its farms with great agricultural production near the east and west. To the north, resides its military and soldiers who train from dawn 'till dusk, ready for any upcoming battle. And to the south of the city, are minor villages and great mountain ranges protecting the city from its harsh elements. The mountain ranges also provide protection if any foreign country decides to invade southwards.